Ferrari GTC4Lusso

It’s a grower, believe us. The more you look at it, the more its sleek and imposing lines hang together, effectively making a car that weighs 1920kg and is 4922mm long and 1980mm wide look lithe and sharky.

You can, and with surprising ease. Although your natural instinct may be to snort derisively when someone from the marketing department talks about a 207mph surface-to-surface missile with room on board for four, the fact is they’re right.

Swing open the big door, watch the front seats whirr speedily forward and you’re faced with a pair of deeply scalloped and very comfortable rear buckets.

The boot is similarly Tardisian. Pop open the electrically-assisted tailgate and the 450-litre loadbay – it grows to 800 litres with the rear seats flipped forward – can easily swallow four overnight bags, or a weekly shop. Handy.

This is a Ferrari, so the driver is still central to the Lusso’s dynamic equation, but the team behind the car’s development has put a great deal of thought and effort into what Griffiths calls ‘democratising the driving experience’.

The result is a cabin where cocooned front passengers not only have their own touch-screen dashboard (a symmetrical layout that’s handy for left- and right-hand markets) but also full access to the shiny new infotainment system, accessed through the pin-sharp 10.25” central screen. There’s lightning quick navigation, split-screen functionality, Apple CarPlay and intuitive access to the system’s myriad functions.

But don’t for a moment think that Ferrari has gone all soft and welched on performance and dynamism. Far from it. Beneath that helicopter pad of a bonnet sits an overhauled version of the 6262cc nat-asp V12 that powered the FF. Drawing lessons from the demented F12 tdf, this all-alloy unit steps into the ring with a punchy 680bhp at 8000rpm and 514lb ft at 5750rpm. A massive 80% of that torque is available at just 1750rpm.

And then some. It’ll claw its way to 62mph in just 3.4sec, top out at 208mph and deliver expletive-inducing acceleration in any gear at any speed between, all accompanied by the goosebumpiest of soundtracks. That on-demand four-wheel drive is a bold and intelligent ally when covering ground quickly, shifting torque to the corners with the most grip to deliver fast-as-you-dare cross country pace, irrespective of weather or road. There’s no sign of nervousness – just a sense of composure and competence.